Nigel Farage announces pledge to make St George’s Day a Bank Holiday

UKIP believes England should have a new public holiday on April 23, St George’s Day, or the next Monday if it fell on a weekend. In Wales, we propose that March 1 would be a new day off for the country to honour St David.

Nigel Farage said: “Surely it’s only fair for us to have a day off to celebrate our own patron saints too? England has been denigrated to such a point that English culture isn’t celebrated in the same way as the national cultures of Scotland and Ireland are.

“We’d like to see St George’s Day and St David’s Day become national days of celebration, both in recognition of the significance of the countries, and to boost consumer spending and tourism, which will make up for money lost from people having the day off.

“UKIP believes in Britain, and we celebrate Britishness. Let’s all of us in the UK fly our flags with pride.”